Employment Discrimination Blog

Establishing a clear factual basis for a claim is essential to success in court. Appellate courts are loathed to alter findings of fact and generally will only rule on errors in the application of law. For a CVS Pharmacist, a key finding may have torpedoed his case and subsequent appeals.

CVS had terminated pharmacy staff member Weldon Williams, who suffers from Type 2 diabetes. He brought a class action suit claiming that CVS' failure to accommodate his disability violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). He also accused them of age discrimination because a younger employer earned more, and alleged a violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act, because CVS would not permit him to return from work after a medical leave.

CVS had argued that the plaintiff's foot pain prevented him from standing for the long periods and prevented him from performing his essential job functions. This made him ineligible for protection under the ADA. A federal district court in Savannah, Georgia agreed and granted CVS a summary judgment. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court's decision.

A key issue in the case was how much "accommodation" Williams had requested. CVS said he had asked for a full-time technician to be assigned to assist him, a fact the Court of Appeals noted and relied on.

In his petition to the United States Supreme Court, Williams said that he had never asked for a full-time technician. The "reasonable accommodation" he sought could have meant simply transferring him to a CVS Pharmacy with more staff, he argued. But the Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Had Williams been able to establish early on in the case that his needs could have been easily accommodated his claim of an ADA violation might have been stronger.

If you feel you have been the victim of discrimination on the job based on disability, race, or any other reason, expert counsel can advise you on whether you have a claim and how to make the strongest case for it.